Itron Smart Meters causing fires in British Columbia, Canada

Victoria, BC, Canada, September 3, 2014 — Coalition to Stop Smart Meters (www.stopsmartmetersbc.com), announces results from a detailed fire investigation demonstrating serious public safety issues. The Fire Report (www.stopsmartmetersbc.com/FireReport) offers details of an ongoing investigation that shows that more fires and failures have occurred in BC than in Saskatchewan, Canada and Portland, Oregon – where the smart meter programs were ordered stopped and smart meters are being removed from homes.

On August 20, 2014, a smart meter fire report was sent to every Government MLA, including Energy Minister Bill Bennett and Premier Christy Clark, which refutes repeated assertions that no smart meters fires have occurred in British Columbia. No one has responded to these charges.

Several years ago the Liberal Government cut funding to the Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC). Now the OFC states that it does not get a report on every fire or incident that could have led to a fire. The Coalition to Stop Smart Meters asserts that this funding cut has resulted in reports not getting filed further resulting in a serious public safety issue.

What is equally concerning is that regulations put in place to protect the public are being ignored and that the only official report attesting to the safety of smart meters was written by a consultant at the behest of BC Hydro, paid to do so by BC Hydro, and who acquired his data exclusively from an agency that is unable to track smart meter fires.

Itron Smart Meters are not CSA certified nor UL certified for use in Canada. Any requests to BC Hydro or to the British Columbian Government have not been addressed showing the testing certification methodology that was used to deploy these proven fire risks with the legally required signature of the senior Engineer.

Coalition to Stop Smart Meters

The Coalition to Stop Smart Meters asks what we have to do to get our government to protect our citizens as the governments of Saskatchewan and Portland, Oregon governments are protecting their citizens. We have discovered this public safety issue through exhaustive research and freedom of information requests. Why is the British Columbia government sill asserting there are no fires in British Columbia as a result of Smart Meter installations? Please feel free to contact our press representative below for any additional information or for an interview request.